Work due to start converting famous Liverpool bank into city's first luxury five-star hotel

Former Martins bank building to be converted into 'world class' facility within months

Work on Liverpool’s first five-star hotel is due to get under way within months.

Approval was given to convert the historic city centre Martins Bank into a 138-bedroom hotel last week.

The company behind the project has now told the ECHO it hopes to start work on the project this autumn with a view to opening the venue in autumn next year.

The £40m hotel will include two restaurants, three bars, a spa, and conference and banqueting rooms.

Bernard Byrne, managing director at Castlewood, said: “We are delighted that the hotel development is about to start on site as it represents the culmination of more than four years work by Castlewood with the support of the city council, Liverpool Vision and Liverpool LEP.

“The hotel, including the Roman style hydrotherapy spa and gym, will bring a new world class facility to Liverpool.

“The restaurants and bars will add to the city's night life and will be designed to have wide appeal. The fine dining restaurant will attract more fine dining aficionados to the city.”

Mr Byrne said he was not able to reveal what the brand of the hotel will be until formal contracts had been signed.

But he said: “The hotel and spa brands will be a well recognised international 5-star brand, with 5-star hotels and spas in London and Paris.”

He added: “Final procurement contracts are being negotiated at present with a view to starting work on site in the autumn to enable the hotel to open in the autumn of 2015.”

The plans for the conversion of the Grade II-listed bank on Water Street were backed by council chiefs in April this year when £1.5m from Liverpool LEP’s Growing Places Fund was earmarked to be allocated to the project.

The development will see the stunning banking hall, which features marble floors and 20 giant columns, converted into used for a hotel reception, bars and restaurants.

Many of the bank’s original features will be retained, with the main dining area enclosed within the horseshoe-shaped tellers’ counter and the original writing desks kept.

Castlewood previously put forward plans for a hotel in the building in 2011 but the development never came to fruition.

Mr Byrne told the ECHO today: “Castlewood is confident its new proposals will be successful as the funding environment has now changed.”

Liverpool doesn’t currently have a five star hotel. The new city centre Doubletree by Hilton hotel, due to open later this year, was originally set to be a five-star hotel but is now going to be a four-star venue.

The Martins Bank site contains four floors of office space which will remain, with the hotel sandwiched between.

The apartment belonging to the former chairman of the bank will be subdivided to form two bedroom suites.

The building, designed by Herbert Rowse, opened as the headquarters of Martins Bank in 1932 after a five-year construction contact.

During the Second World War some of the Bank of England’s gold reserves from London were stored in the Liverpool bank’s vaults as a potentially safer refuge from bombs.

In 1969 Martins Bank was bought by Barclays, who used the building until 1989 when it was sold to the Carroll Group, from which it was acquired in 1996 by the present owners, Castlewood.

Barclays closed the branch about five years ago and the banking hall has remained empty since.

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Alastair Machray

Alastair Machray was appointed editor of The Liverpool Echo in 2005 and is also editor-in-chief of Trinity Mirror Merseyside, Cheshire and North Wales. He is a former editor of The Daily Post (Wales and England) and editor-in-chief of the company's Welsh operations. Married dad-of-two and keen golfer Alastair is one of the longest-serving newspaper editors in the country. His titles have won numerous awards and spearheaded numerous successful campaigns.